Glittery Gold and Shadowy Silver
by Slytherin Cat
Summary: What if Sirius had been Sorted in Slytherin, because he had been closer to his brother? How would this affect him when he notices a Gryffindor, someone he's supposed to hate but somehow can't help but like? Sirius/Marlene, AU, Marauder Era.


This is written as a gift to the wonderful **Sylvia** who gave me this idea when she said she wanted a Sirius/Marlene. I shall warn you that this is AU, probably a bit of OOCness too.

I'd like to thank MissingMommy who betaed this for me! You're fantastic!

_Disclaimer:_I don't own Harry Potter. It's a tragedy that I'll never recover from. My psychologist says writing fanfiction might help.

Please review!

**The Game Is On**

Sirius was watching her again. The worst thing was that he didn't know why. She was nothing truly special, was not the best in her class, not beautiful – but not ugly either – nor did she have a lot of friends. She was pretty, sure, but not in the supermodel way the girl he usually hang out with, and clever, but there shouldn't have been something to attract him in her.

She was normal; she was an average witch – though a Pureblood, not that he had ever met her before Hogwarts – and she was a Gryffindor. All these things should have separated them, considering he was a Slytherin after all.

So why couldn't he tear his gaze away from her? Why couldn't he just stop wishing he could be at this other table, in this other world, where she laughed and smiled and joked with her friends freely while he was stuck with his fellow Pureblood who wouldn't know a joke if it came bite them in the arse?

_Yeah, he knew that life wasn't fair, but that was taking it a bit far, was it?_

He had bumped into her at the end of a Transfiguration lesson last week – he had apologized of course, it was what proper gentlemen, or wizards did, at least to those supposedly pure enough to deserve it (the last part was of course added by his mother) – and since then he hadn't been able to forget her and had found himself staring at her each time he stopped concentrating on something specific.

It was quite annoying too, because had it been anyone else he could just have asked her out once or twice and then go back to his routine once his interest had disappeared – maybe it wasn't very classy, but he always made sure the girl he went out with knew that it wasn't supposed to last eternally and he always tried not to be too harsh when they broke up.

Which was why he actually had a rather good reputation with the witches instead of the horrible one people like Lucius Malfoy or Rabastan Lestrange had. Except that his reputation, as good as it was, wouldn't help him with Marlene McKinnon. After all, Slytherins and Gryffindors didn't mix – as proof the weird friendship between the Mud-Muggleborn Lily Evans and Snape – and she would immediately suspect foul play if he ever approached her. And so he couldn't and was reduced to watching her from afar like a fool.

Annoying, as he said. And he was staring again! Did the Fates really have no pity? _(Yeah, maybe he was a bit of a drama queen, but this was all in his head so who would ever know?)_

"Are you alright Sirius?" Regulus' voice snapped him – thankfully – out of his ruminations. He was finally able to tear his gaze away from the blonde witch sitting at the Lions' table and look at his brother. He looked worried.

Inwardly, Sirius smiled. There weren't many people he liked in his family, but his brother was one of them – their mother had always encouraged him to take care of his younger brother and they had spent a lot of time together growing up, being the only boys of the family. Their cousin Andromeda was one of them, but she was older and anyway it had been forbidden to talk about her since she had eloped with a Muggleborn wizard.

Regulus was the only one who knew how Sirius really felt about his family and their ideology. Sirius knew he could trust his brother to keep his secrets just that, secrets, and Regulus knew he could do the same with Sirius.

In their family of Slytherins, Sirius had always felt ill at ease. Everyone wore masks upon masks, always hiding their true feelings, their true thoughts. They were hypocrites, always stroking the egos of the well-known, the powerful people who often visited, never quite lying but never completely truthful either.

His mother was the worst of them all (though his cousin Bellatrix wasn't far behind. The girl had been nice when she was young, but it seemed that the years while enhancing her beauty also made her crazier). He hated her and the way she always wanted to control everything her family thought. She had been amongst the more virulent against Andromeda when she had decided to marry Ted Tonks, a Muggleborn. Sirius believed that hadn't she been there his cousin probably wouldn't have been disowned.

However, he would also always love her - a little - for ordering him to take care of and protect his little brother. It was thanks to her that he now had a faithful confident in his family, someone he could talk to and rely on, someone who understood him. He also knew that hadn't she made that decision he probably wouldn't have been as close to his brother, which meant Regulus would have been brainwashed into her ideals.

He owed her at least for this and even though he hated her for everything else she was, he couldn't help but admire her loyalty to those she considered her family anyway.

"Yeah I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You look troubled."

"I said I was fine, Reg!" He gave his brother a pointed look and thankfully he seemed to understand that it meant they would talk about it later – unfortunately for him Regulus had developed an ever-present need to talk about feelings and he was so stubborn he always managed to get Sirius to talk to him, be it through his unceasing use of nagging or by the use of his puppy dog's eyes (one day Sirius had made the terrible error that was teaching this look to his brother… He would regret it to the end of time). They really should be outlawed.

Deciding to ignore his brother for as long as he could, Sirius turned back his head toward the Gryffindor's table while filling his plate for the third time with bacon and scrambled eggs – a man can never have enough food after all.

"She's not here. She's gone."

He had noticed, thank you very much. At least, though he was far too obsessed with that Gryffindor girl, he was still able to see what was in front of him.

"She has a name you know. And wait, since when do you know I've been watching?"

"You haven't exactly been discreet about your 'watching' you know." Regulus was smirking, which was never a good sign, and generally the bad news weren't for Regulus.

"Just because you like to spy on people doesn't mean I'm that obvious…" Sirius grumbled because he knew he had been.

"Whatever makes you feel better…"

There were some times Sirius really hated his brother, and this was definitely one of them. He scowled at the dark-haired younger wizard and turned back his focus on his food. And if he wasn't answering, it wasn't because he didn't know what to say. Sirius Black always knew what to say. _Sirius Black also liked to talk about himself in third person and lived in denial apparently_. That little voice – his conscience – was quite good at pointing out evidences…

And if he really was hearing a voice in his head then he was even madder than he thought…

"Her name is Marlene you know…" Why was he even talking? Here, in the middle of the Slytherin's table, where everyone could hear him? This was pure madness.

"I know." Right, his brother had a creepy information network – Sirius liked to call it the Regulus' Spy Web (RSW for short) but for some reason his brother preferred to say it was just some people owing him favors and a lot of listening spells put in the right places.

"So what do you know about her?" It couldn't hurt to ask, right? It wasn't really stalking if he never actually talked to her…

"Well, she has a boyfriend…"

"Not for long," Sirius whispered darkly.

"And I suppose you are going to change this with one of your terrific plans?"

His brother sounded far too ironic to his tastes… Wait, what had he just said? He hadn't really… No, he couldn't have… He still knew what he was saying when he said it, right? Oh hell, and here went 'not getting involved'.

His brother would never let him get away with this if he said he hadn't meant it. Though he wasn't sure if he hadn't just been looking for an excuse to see her more often…

"I'll let you know that my plans are always wonderful. And yes, if you wanna know, I'll use one. I still haven't figured it yet, but when I will it will be the best plan in the history of plans."

The youngest Black gave him a pitying look and patted his shoulder before leaving the Hall, leaving his scowling brother behind.

Apparently he could seduce the Gryffindor, because he wouldn't be lynched by his Housemates – he could still remember Snape's treatment over his friendship with Lily Evans, though that was maybe more because she was a Muggleborn than anything else.

Of course there still was the problem of her boyfriend…


End file.
